1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of setting a wireless communication device to establish wireless communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various forms of wireless communication are widely used for data transmission between information processing devices. The typically available form of wireless communication is a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) in conformity with the IEEE 802.11 standard as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 2003-283506. General requirement for wireless communication is common settings in communication devices that establish communication. For example, in an infrastructure wireless LAN, an SSID (Service Set Identifier) and an encryption key of WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) are commonly set to respective communication devices functioning as stations and access points. In an Ad Hoc wireless LAN, a channel and an encryption key of WEP are commonly set to the respective communication devices. When there is a request for participation of a new communication device in the wireless LAN, the user is required to change the settings in the new communication device to the settings for the wireless LAN.
The operation of setting the new communication device is generally time and labor consuming. It is especially troublesome to set a communication device with poor operational performances of a user interface, for example, a printing device with wireless communication functions. The general procedure connects the printing device with a personal computer (PC) and sets the printing device through operations of the PC. Wire communication between the printing device and the PC may be made, for example, via a USB cable. Wireless communication between the printing device and the PC may alternatively be established by temporarily changing the settings for wireless communication in the PC to the settings in the printing device. The former method requires wire connection, while the latter method requires restoration of the original settings in the PC after setting the printing device.